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Friday, March 2, 2012

ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

ScienceDaily: Strange Science News


Bacteria communicate by touch, new research suggests

Posted: 01 Mar 2012 11:37 AM PST

What if bacteria could talk to each other? What if they had a sense of touch? A new study suggests both, and theorizes that such cells may, in fact, need to communicate in order to perform certain functions.

What makes a robot fish attractive? Robot fish moves to the head of the school

Posted: 01 Mar 2012 08:33 AM PST

Probing the largely unexplored question of what characteristics make a leader among schooling fish, researchers have discovered that by mimicking nature, a robotic fish can transform into a leader of live ones. In early experiments aimed at understanding how a robot could potentially lead wildlife from danger, the researchers were intrigued to find that their biomimetic robotic fish could not only infiltrate and be accepted by the swimmers, but actually assume a leadership role.

In space and on Earth, why build it, when a robot can build it for you?

Posted: 01 Mar 2012 08:32 AM PST

Like something straight out of "Star Wars," armies of robots could nimbly be crawling up towers and skyscrapers to make repairs in the not-so-distant future, so humans don't have to.

Fancy footwork and non-stick leg coating helps spiders not stick to their own webs

Posted: 01 Mar 2012 07:38 AM PST

Researchers asked why spiders do not stick to their own sticky webs. Repeating old, widely quoted but poorly documented studies with modern equipment and techniques, they discovered that spiders' legs are protected by a covering of branching hairs and by a non-stick chemical coating and that they modify their behavior to avoid getting stuck.

Alternative fuels expert plans coast-to-coast U.S. trip on 10 gallons of gas or less

Posted: 01 Mar 2012 07:27 AM PST

An alternative fuels expert firmly believes he can go coast-to-coast on l0 gallons of gasoline or less. His attempts will be March 3-8, 2012, and in 2013.

Bacteria tend leafcutter ants' gardens

Posted: 01 Mar 2012 05:41 AM PST

New research points to two important roles for bacteria that live in the underground fungal gardens of leafcutter ants: they help decompose leaves that ants bring to the gardens and play a major role in turning those leaves into nutrients for both ants and the fungi. The findings could help researchers studying fungal enzymes to convert plants into biofuel.

Modify thy ejaculate to determine the sex of your offspring

Posted: 28 Feb 2012 08:42 AM PST

Some animal and human populations were shown to shift their birth sex ratio from the expected unity. Using fluorescence in situ hybridisation, scientists now show that males in a captive endangered pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis) population may be able to adjust the ratio of X- and Y-chromosome bearing spermatozoa in their ejaculates, in favor of producing more female offspring.

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